Post-Alchemy, spiffy links. :)

Ayup, just about another 30 posts in the last 3.5 hours. (2300-0230).

Alchemy was pretty fun, particularly because cheshirrrecat was there, with seeking_insight's girlfriend Liz in tow. Liz is cool. :) (She also apparently knows Shauna and Sarah.) Also present were pictsy and Bagel, but I didn't see them much.

w00t! Postcard from preciouslaura, mailed July 3rd from Rome. :)

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Great motorcycling safety video! (From thinkroadsafety.gov.uk): PerfectDay.mpg from here. (18MB)

paidmembers: Faster website response for paid users!

Also, from lj_maintenance: Comment emails not lost, just misplaced! Sweet!

Via kitiara: Photojournalism student harassed for taking photos of landmark. Also, Man arrested for photographing FAA headquarters. In These Troubled Times, my ass.

Affirmative action on a high school level

So, the current admissions procedures for my magnet high school, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, is under attack again. The initial admissions procedure of an SAT-style entrance exam weighted with GPA culls the application pool from about 2500 annually to 800; those 800 applications are then compared--courses, extracurriculars, essay, etc.--to select the final 400 students for the freshman body. The "problem" arises when this race-blind process results in an almost entirely white and Asian student body, with low numbers of minorities represented.

The kneejerk reaction to this is modify the admissions process to artificially boost the numbers of minorities, "increasing diversity." The problem with this is, as iriantuu succinctly put it:

Iriantuu (12:21:34): There's nothing illegal or immoral about jefferson. ITS VERY CLEAR THAT GOOD SCORES GET YOU IN.
Iriantuu (12:22:50): I'd be all for dismantling jefferson if someone could demonstrate that it's part of an institutional problem.
Iriantuu (12:23:09): But as best I can tell, the terrible conditions of schools in low-income and predominantly black areas has nothing to do wtih jefferson

A fellow TJ graduate, Ryan Comes, has written a letter to the school board regarding the commission's report, raising several concerns before the board votes on the issue.

The comission's report, as well as a partial history of the issue, can be found here. (Does anyone else see anything questionable about the contradiction between "Increase Diversity; Read all applications including biographical information!" and "Don't change admissions standards and criteria"?)

Ryan's letter can be found here.

The post to tjpeople, including information on contacting Ryan and supporting his efforts, can be found here.

A survey on the issue, noticeable biased in favor of the change, with a comment box, can be found here.

My comment to the survey was as follows:
The educational problems resulting in TJ's non-diverse population lie in a faulty primary education system in the U.S., not in race-blind high school admissions. Artificially "increasing diversity" will result in a decrease in the quality of a TJ education, and an increase in students not properly equipped by their educational history to handle TJ's rigor.

More from iriantuu:

Iriantuu (12:43:35): Granted it's not fair and such, but people with low test scores are statistically less likely to do well at JEfferson.
Iriantuu (12:44:09): Personally I'd leave jefferson the same and use it's application and acceptance demographics as indicators as to how the state is doing with its schools.
Iriantuu (12:44:18): Not changing it to try and make the state look artificially better.

As an aside, I feel that No Child Left Behind is likewise off-target, though with similarly misguided good intentions, neglecting the positive outliers in favor of standardization.

Non-job, Non-readers, non-Junk, & motorcyclists

Well, that's a nice surprise--in addition to the two or three emails I've gotten from VAemploy.com reminding me to file weekly, I just got a phone call from a woman making sure I'd gotten my PIN, as I hadn't filed yet, and informing me that they'd received my separation info from RDR and that I was eligible for two weeks already.

I also replied to the email from the Telos/Xacta woman before going to sleep last night--expressing a tentative interest in a "physical security at the Pentagon" position. Still not in my field, but if it's all I can get at the moment..

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In really sad news from reabhecc, Half of US shuns literature.

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I realized that my email program's Junk folder had gotten mis-sorted, resulting in me missing several pieces of non-Junk, which I summarily saved.

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I have a riding club! I sent in an application to join the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, Fairfax chapter last week sometime, and got a reply today. Checking the site and forum, it seems like a good, friendly bunch of people. :)

IMDb's Top 100 Movies

( I've seen just about half )